


Basic Human Decency

by kunnskat



Series: OCs Through the Fandoms [5]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, Marineford Arc, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2018-11-02 18:16:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10950051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kunnskat/pseuds/kunnskat
Summary: She swore she wouldn't change anything - she didn't want to be responsible for a bigger mess. If she had to choose between who she'd prefer to live out of Ace and Luffy, well, the choice might be difficult but she's well aware of who she'd choose in the end.





	1. Lucy

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if I should keep this as is or continue it. Procrastinating on a thesis does that to you. 
> 
> Also, this fic may be similar to another I read that was multi-chaptered and a marine that died and became a ghost or something. I think. I get some fics mixed up in my head, but if that's the case then the similarities are few and accidental, promise.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?"

Her pointed question draws out a tense silence, before the two men salute her and hurry out of her sight.

"That's what I thought."

She ignores the gaze of the prisoner, settling against the wall close to the bars that separate them, pretending to not see the thoughtful curiosity in his expression. 

It's not like she's even doing this for him. It's just that he's got enough to worry about with his little brother still stuck, and said little brother would have a harder time of getting out alive if she hadn't done something. Like ensure many of them were busy and hint a reminder of how necessary a large escort is. 

She knows they won't yet run into trouble again, but that doesn't mean anyone else does. 

-

"...Hey."

She looks over at him, quirking an eyebrow in an inquiring manner. 

"..."

"What?" She rasps out, face twisting into a grimace at the sound of her voice. 

"Do you... Do you think there's an afterlife?"

Ah. 

She tries to smile at him, and lies, "of course. There's a world after this where all your loved ones'll be waiting for you, to chide you for dying too soon."

He smiles back at her, happier at her answer than she thinks he should be, but she doesn't judge it where he can see or hear it. If it helps him make peace easier, is that really so wrong? She can't think it is, not knowing what she does. 

He's going to die soon, for the sake of someone important to him, and it's none of their faults. If a few words from his guard can help him suffer less on his way there, she's happy to do it. It's not like anyone can tell her off for it, she's the only guard this close to him, the only one close enough to talk, and she'd volunteered for the duty, so he wouldn't have to suffer through those who'd deliberately be cruel to him. 

She doesn't want to watch him die, but she knows she can't change it. Shouldn't, either, even if she could. There's too much at stake to try. 

-

She realizes she hates the way he looks with his head bowed, shoulders slumped as he's led off to his execution. Dejected. Defeated. She hates it, and if she could've changed it without ruining everything, she would've. 

Her heart hurts at knowing there's nothing she can do to help him now. There's no way for her to fix his pain, nothing she can do to stop the suffering he, and his loved ones, are about to go through.

She would've done anything to make him smile again, if she could've. He's got such a wonderful smile even when it's not at its best. 

She pinches herself discreetly to stop the tears that threaten to come down. It's frustrating, because she'd thought she was done crying about this in her past life, but it's so much worse being there in person. She hopes she can keep from crying when he does die, or she's going to be in so much trouble. 

It sounds horrible worded like that, but. She can't stop it. She can't fix it. She can only keep herself alive and in high honor, so that she will be able to help, later. 

She won't get to help Ace personally, but she's sure he'd be pleased if she can help Luffy. 

As a former older sibling, she knows what it's like to want to protect the younger sibling.

-

She's running, hands trembling as she fights the pirates escaped from Impel Down. 

She doesn't try to get the Whitebeards, knows she won't really be able to anyway, and focuses on the escapees. It works best for keeping her close to Ace, too. 

She's not going to save him. She's also not going to get in the way of his savior. She's just going to be there, fighting. 

Not killing, just fighting, downing opponent after opponent with her bare hands because she broke her swords on purpose, in what hopefully looked like an accident, just so that she wouldn't have to kill. Gun? She can't aim for shit, so that's another good excuse.

She's not a killer, not really. She can be if she has to, she knows that, but that also doesn't mean she has to like it. Besides, she can't begrudge the Whitebeards for trying to get their family member back. She'd do the same if she had any of hers about to be executed. She wouldn't have hesitated for even a heartbeat to invade Impel Down or Marineford or both. Even Enies Lobby if it had still been standing at the time. 

His blood doesn't matter, shouldn't matter to any of them. If they have to execute him, she wishes they'd do it for something he'd personally done, instead of this farce. 

But she can't stop it. 

She can't let Luffy think he and his crew can manage without their years of training. She can't let their timeline go so off course. They need to keep saving people. 

Luffy needs to survive, to become Pirate King. 

She hasn't gotten to the end, she doesn't know for sure that it'll happen, but she doesn't think for a second that it won't. She knows how those stories works, she knows he'll get there even without confirmation. 

She can't let that get fucked up, even if it means letting Ace die. 

Luffy means more, she's sure Ace would agree if he knew what she does. 

-

She lets him blow past her without even a token of resistance, but throws out her leg to trip one of the following pirates, following it up with a punch that is dodged more easily than her leg. Not that she's truly trying, she just has to make it look like she is.

After all, Sengoku is looking this way. It's Luffy, many are looking this way, and if there's even the slightest thought in one of them that she's not doing her best, she'll be suspected as a revolutionary in disguise at best, an informant broker maybe. 

She can let Luffy past because he's fast, he's strong, there's no chance she could beat him and anyone that knows her, knows this. Her focusing her attention on those she can beat will be noted, later. Maybe they'll decide she's one of the smarter Marines and promote her, if she's lucky. Strategy is important, right? Sengoku has to consider it to be, or they'd never have gotten this far with him as high up as he is. 

They'll all be forgiven on the Luffy issue, because Luffy is the grandchild of that infuriating man. 

For a moment, she feels like her back is burning, and she turns to look around the moment the pirate gets stuck fighting another marine. She doesn't see any other attackers, and her gaze automatically lifts to Ace, to check on him still being there and alive, that she hadn't messed something up by existing. 

He's looking right back at her, so she looks towards Luffy instead, a wry smile curling on her lips before she can stop it at the sight of his shield against Dracule Mihawk. It's fine if it's like that, everyone'll just think she's pleased he's about to get caught. 

The feeling of being burned disappears. 

-

Exhaustion pulls at her and she wishes she could slump to the ground and sleep, but she knows it'll be noticed that she chose to go to sleep and not pass out without meaning to. Or, well, she doesn't know, but. She can't take that chance if she wants to be able to help Luffy later. She has to go up in ranks, not down. If she gets demoted, it'll take too long to regain the honor she's got. 

She's got to be helpful. 

Being a Marine sucks, what had she been thinking?

She chances a glance at the two brothers, shoulders sinking from their tense position as she sees them fall towards the ground. Luffy's done it, now they'll get a few happy minutes before it all goes to Hell. 

It's difficult to not smile, but she thinks she's managing. The sadness of knowing what is to come, helps.

Her focus turns on the pirates in front of her, fighting on through her exhaustion. She can't watch it happen, even if she wants to be sure it goes the same. 

She can't watch Ace die, it'll be too painful, she'll definitely cry. 

She doesn't want him to die. 

-

A cough. 

It's difficult to breathe. 

It... Hurts. 

She feels air rush to places of her body where it shouldn't, and the pain disappears. 

She thinks she must be in shock. 

A warm arm wraps around her waist as her head drops down to the shoulder of the only thing keeping her upright. 

She hears Luffy say something, hesitant in ways he should never be, a shout closing in on them both where they're kneeling on the battleground. 

Her eyes flicker up to meet wide, horrified ones, and this time she decides it doesn't matter if everyone sees her smile at a time where no marine should be smiling. They've already watched her save a pirate from certain death, if that doesn't get her demoted she's not sure what would. 

"...Hey."

Ace leans closer to hear her better, as the man holding her up - boy, really - lifts her higher so they can both meet her gaze. 

"Guess you didn't give them a reason to chide you after all, huh," she laughs, but it turns into coughs, as the two brothers surround her. 

Ace lifts his little brother into his arms, and Luffy does not let go of her even as she fakes a wince. 

They shouldn't trouble themselves like this, but apparently they've decided to do what they want, like usual. 

"What's your name?" 

She's tired, so she lets Luffy take her weight, and answers in a mumble, "call me what you'd like, it's all the same to me."

It feels like every second is a day, so she doesn't know how much time has passed when they're surrounded by more pirates, but she finds herself wondering why she's still alive. 

She'd gotten a fist of magma through her stomach, the only way she could've survived was if she'd eaten a devil fruit, but she's pretty sure she hasn't. 

Maybe she's just lucky, maybe she won't have to die surrounded by the hatred of her former companions. Maybe death is waiting for her to answer Luffy's question properly before it takes her. She doesn't know, she doesn't remember meeting it the last time around and so she doesn't know the quirks of death. 

He's silent, it's weird from what she remembers. He looks so serious, too, now that she stares at him through the approaching darkness.

"...I don't know it, grew up away from my parents," he doesn't need to know what the marines call her, that's not her real name in either lives. It doesn't count.

"Then, how about Lucy?"

She can't see either of them anymore, she thinks her eyes are closed, but she doesn't mind using the last of her strength to smile, "sounds fine."


	2. Whitebeard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She's nothing special. The exception being that she's not attempting to kill any of his children. That she lets his son's brother pass with ease. That she smiles at their freedom. That she dies to let them keep it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And again I procrastinate instead of finishing my thesis. Damn it.

They have his son. 

The barrel in his grasp explodes, alcohol coating the deck and a few splinters sticking out of his hand. They're only noticeable for the worry of his children around him, he feels nothing but the pain of knowing his son is in danger. 

Marshall D. Teach has turned his son over to the marines.

The traitor will be punished for it, but though their fury and hatred burns ever so bright, the first priority is Ace. 

They'll get Teach eventually. No one crosses his family without being repaid twice the favor. 

-

He arrives at the battlefield filled with determination, followed by men and women just as stubborn as he and just as willing to fight. 

It's been planned as well as it can be, everyone knows what they need to do and there's enough people here to make it happen. He's got it all down to even certain minor details, though some of them are best kept from everyone else until it is necessary of him to reveal them. 

He is ready for this war, he is ready to take his son back to where he belongs. 

He is ready to die for it, should it become necessary. 

He's got plans for Teach, if he shows, too, but that man had ran from it rather than face him before, and he does not expect to be seeing him on the battlefield, one of the marines' new pets or not. He doesn't expect to need the plans, but they're ready for anything. 

Anything in order to get Ace back.

Their ships rise up from the water, and with a grim expression facing the many standing between them and their goal, he vows to make sure this is a war the marines will regret starting. 

\- 

There is nothing special about the marine that catches his eye. 

Nothing except for the fact that his son cannot stop glancing at her in between desperately trying to make them all turn back and run. 

She is just another marine, a young woman fighting the pirates, and nothing about her stands out to him enough for him to understand why she's so important to the young man that believes he's going to die today. 

Until he looks closely at how she fights. 

She's not even trying to really hurt anyone. She's knocking pirates out left and right, sure, but there's not going to be any lasting damage. She's got no weapons other than her bare fists, or if she does have any then she's not using them, and she seems to be focusing her attention on the former prisoners of Impel Down, with notable exceptions. 

He watches her watch Monkey D. Luffy blast by, but she does not react until another pirate attempts to pass her straight after. And he knows she could've at least halted him, he's been watching her as much as he can throughout the battle, but she'd let him through without any resistance.

Whitebeard glances up at Sengoku, who he sees is watching that very area at that moment, and sees the look on his face, the knowing. 

That marine girl won't be getting any further if she can't come up with a reasonable explanation for her actions. 

He smiles, though, at seeing her do the same, widening his grin at seeing his son fall along with his brother, free from the shackles that had held him from them.

The smile stays even when Sazasuki hunts them, for Ace is free. Free enough to fly ahead of the mad marine. Sazasuki won't be able to catch him.

-

He curses the pride his children have in him, wishes for only a moment that they didn't, if only so Ace would not halt at the perceived insult. 

Or perhaps he wishes they were less hotheaded, but they'd not be who they are if they weren't, so perhaps not. 

He strides, and his strides are much larger than that of most, towards where they are heading, to intercept the marine and all those marines following him, so that his children may escape this war safe and sound. 

He is determined, just as much as he'd been upon learning what Sengoku had in store for his son, to prevent their plans. 

They seem just as determined to keep him where he stands, marine after marine stalling him. 

He's got no plans of leaving before his children are safe and the war is over, even if it takes his life to do it. 

He doesn't expect it to take the life of a marine to halt the battle.

But. 

He is grateful to the girl, no matter if she's a real marine or not, for saving the life of his son and the brother. 

So he attacks again and again until he can see the brothers, and what is left of the marine girl, leave the battlefield, and knows that though the marines, and the world with them, will hate and despise everything about her, she will be given a proper funeral, and a grave that they will not allow to be disturbed. Her sacrifice will be honored, even if he himself does not live long enough to see it. 

He has raised his sons right, they will treat her as if she was one of their own. And in a way, she was. As she took her last breath, she was one of his. 

She was nothing special, she didn't stand out in the slightest. Neither in looks or strength. She was just another marine, a captain at most, and he has never seen her face before in any capacity. Perhaps if he knew her name, he would be surprised by some famous hidden figure, but there seems to be nothing special about her at all.

Other than the exception of dying for their freedom, just like any other Whitebeard pirate.

He calls for Marco even as the marines come out of their shock along with the pirates, and watches the trio get crowded by the safety of family. Not blood related, though Ace's brother seems to know the concept fine enough to work with it as Ace holds them up, but family all the same. 

"Bring them home!"


	3. Marco

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He thinks he should hate Teach and maybe he will, given time to think.

Some days he regrets being in his position. 

Not because of the responsibility of taking care of everyone, or even the paperwork and everything else, but because it limits him. It limits where he can go and what he can do, it limits how much he can act to help his nakama. 

He dislikes it the most when they learn Teach has betrayed them. He might be able to hunt after him as one of the first responders, but when he returns without him and no one else has managed to catch him, either, he's limited to staying and keeping control. He can't leave them all behind just to hunt Teach, no matter that he's a traitor and that he's got to be dealt with. 

No matter that he killed Thatch. 

He understands how Ace feels, when he stalks back and forth in a circle, bursting into flames every now and then even with the control he's learned by now. The rage, the guilt, the frustration. The grief that makes it all thrice as potent. 

They hadn't even seen it coming. 

-

It's not that they let Ace go after Teach. Or even that they want him to. 

Yes, they want justice for the betrayal. They want him to pay for the brothers he took from them. They desire few things more than to know why.

But they don't want to lose any more brothers. They don't want to separate from each other more than they already are. Ace going off on his own means he'll be alone, they won't get to be there to watch his back.

They don't let him go, but they can't stop him and they can't refuse him. He travels faster on his own. All they can do is make him promise to call as often as possible. More often than he thinks he can.

He wouldn't call until he had to, if they didn't.

They regret not chaining him down after, when they're planning for the war they hadn't even expected to come of everything.

-

Hate is an emotion he does not commonly feel.

There is no hint of it when they fight the Marines, nor when they protect what is theirs. There is no hate when he stands in front of Pops and reports their lack of success in avenging Teach, though he wishes there would be. 

There is no hate, only fury and upset.

He thinks he should hate Teach -- no, he is Blackbeard now -- when he helps cover the retreat of his brothers, bringing them home like he'd been ordered to. There should be hate. There should be a lot of hate. But there isn't.

Here they have been given hints at why everything has come to past, but not time to process it. No time to understand and rage about it.

No time to learn to hate for it, only time to retreat, to honor the sacrifices offered for their safety.

He thinks he should hate Teach and maybe he will, given time to think.

-

Marco works with information. 

It's this work that has him searching for anything about the girl that had died to save two brothers that Marco thinks of as his own. Anything to explain why she, a Marine, would do such a thing. She'd told Ace and Luffy that she hadn't gotten to grow up with her parents, as if they'd been far away from her at all times, and that she hadn't known her name. That was information he could use to figure it out. Maybe, if he learned the name her parents called her before she grew up away from them, he could leave that name at her grave and feel a little less indebted to her. 

She would no doubt still be Lucy the life-saver to the rest of his family, but Marco works with information and not knowing bothers him. 

That's why he's so frustrated -- and surprised for what parent would not at least name their child? -- to learn that the traitor to Marines had been denounced and tossed out of that family that seemed to be filled to the brim with only Marines. To learn that they had not only refused to name the child and promptly tossed it to a nanny and then to training from the moment it showed any capability of doing such a thing, but also allowed the Marines to nickname her Sparky and leave her with that. No first name, last name only allowed if she gave them something to honor it. 

He's starting to get why she would agree to being Lucy, she hasn't got any other name here, and he decides to leave her with that on her grave. She'll be their Lucy and maybe one of them'll give her their last name. 

He knows two brothers that he's sure wouldn't even hesitate.


End file.
